Project01 Preliminary Critique

[chloecutter]

Hey everyone!

These designs were heavily influenced by my love for drawing and painting, hence my layouts having a sketchbook-like theme. I've been delving into the realm of black-and-white artwork as of late, and these designs portray the moody and dark themes I love to work with in my art world.

Design One (periwinkle): This design is the more tame and clean version of my rough drafts. The simple backdrop makes the text easy to read and creates contrast, this is one of my favorite colors due to its coolness and being the perfect mix of purples and blues. The font used for my name has a good amount of expression and legibility, the sharp corners and wisps add a fun edge to the design, while not being too distracting. I enjoy how straightforward and effective this design is.

Design Two (crumpled paper): This design is the more expressive version of my rough drafts. The crumbled paper is used for visual interest and texture, playing into the idea of the sketchbook theme. In order for the text to be legible, one solution I came up with was adding the opaque white box in the background....is it effective or distracting? The font used for my name is much more expressive than my other design, but I absolutely love the scary/cracked glass effect it has. I wanted the image of flowers and the paragraph to look almost like a book. Overall, I personally like this design more, but I'm afraid it's too chaotic, what do you think?

Two inspirational websites I found were:

https://the-goonies.webflow.io/ is a website that has unusual visual interest, a great layout, and fitting typestyles. The initial loading screen adds exciting anticipation to see the website, while the layout uses every bit of space in its favor. The imagery encapsulates the text effectively, and it's easy and fun to navigate through.

https://www.franshalsmuseum.nl/ This website uses brilliant color combinations that pop off the screen, the bold texts and hierarchies are effective and eye-catching. I also enjoy the collapsing effect the text has when you scroll past it.

[LMisher]

Hello Chloe!

I liked the crumpled paper background because it reminded me of the old map that "One-Eyed Willie" from Goonies had that sent the kids on an adventure to find the treasure. As a fellow Goonies fan, I enjoyed the texts and insect references, which made me think of the movie. It also reminded me of the centipedes in one of my classic films, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

On the second version with the lavender background, I enjoyed your use of centipedes to spell out your name "CHLOE." That was very creative.
Overall, good job out the gate!

[Brooke_Brown]

Hello Chloe!
I really like the design you're going for with these roughs, personally the blue layout really caught my attention, the wrinkled paper one is really good too but the blue one just caught my eye, i think the "clean-ness" of it pulled me in, but i also really love your wrinkled paper one with the white layovers contrasting and pairing nicely with the old school vibe. I really like both designs, im excited to see what else you make in this class

[KAWINTHRAC]

Hi Chloe,
I really like both of your design especially the crumpled paper. I think the feeling of crumpled paper, graphic, and type go very well together. The texture of the paper is interesting. The layout seem easy to navigate too. The blue one is also nice. I do like the color and your photo on this one.

[Instructor]

Oh I'm all about that crumpled paper one Chloe.

As cool as the texture is, I think I like the blurred photo the best. Like you're the class cryptid or something. The whole thing definitely has a found object scrapbook quality to it that I'm really digging. This website belongs in a secret shoebox under a bed. But let's not undersell your texture either. It adds such a picked up from the street quality to the whole thing. So viually interesting and the bag color helps sell it all. As much as I am generally not a fan of heavy metal logo fonts, this one works. It makes your title look like another ink pressed flower. It goes really well with your overall theme. So does the rest of your type for that matter. It feels hand pressed, like everything else here.

I share your skepticism at the need for the transparent white boxes. I think you could ditch them both and not loose a lot. Your bodycopy is bold enough to show against the texture, I think. If not, just lighten the texture a little bit behind the content area and you should be good. The rest of the texture wouldn't need any lightening at all. If you have to use them, work with the texture and make them interesting like lined paper or construction paper on top of your paper bag background.

Great work!

[ngrover19]

Hi Chloe!

I'm hopping on the crumpled paper train. I particularly enjoy the title typeface choice joined with the bug, for me it elicits a spooky feel. Add the blurry photo and you've captured a very artistic presence with this page design. I also noticed the sort of watermarked "C" (assuming stands for Chloe) in the top left of your crumpled paper desktop layout. Alignment and centering of everything feels spot on too. Great job!

[CedarM]

Hi Chloe,
I like both of these design and the creepy vibe you are going for with the bug and the font choice in your name. I think this could be really helped by using a darker background and maybe doing a red or reddish beige for your text. I think this would strengthen the creepy look and give the piece a little more unity.

-Cedar

[kristenrothbauer]

Hi Chloe!
I really really love your second layout. The simple color in the back with the graphics looks so fun and the layout flows so well. I think the only feedback I would have is to maybe make the navigation stand out a little bit more? But both layouts are so unique and eye catching, they look great!

[jillian_rodgers]

Hi Chloe!

I am really digging the crumpled paper layout the most, it is super unique and really gives an artistic vibe to the whole website. I think that the white boxes holding the text aren't necessary, so getting rid of those would help tie everything together. Overall, amazing job!

[Giselle]

Hi Chloe!
I'm obsessed with the first design! I love the photo you chose; you look gorgeous. It also adds mystery with the blur motion. The texture makes the website look super cool, and you chose the best fonts for your theme. I can't think of anything I would change besides making the bar separation a little thinner, but it will still look good either way. I can't wait to see this website running!